Appeals court confirms Stureby killing sentences

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The Svea Court of Appeal has confirmed the sentences for the two teenagers convicted in the killing of 15-year-old Therese Johansson Rojo in the Stockholm suburb of Stureby last summer.

In September 2009, Södertörn District Court found the two teens, a 16-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, guilty of having killed the girl.

The boy was found guilty of murder and the girl of instigation of murder. The court confirmed that the two teenagers should serve 20 months in institutional juvenile care.

The court ruled that the evidence supported the judgement that the boy had been subjected to psychological abuse by his girlfriend and thus that their intent was the same, despite the fact that the boy actually executed the killing.

The boy admitted to the killing to the police the day after, while the girl maintained her innocence in the Södertorn court trial.

According to testimony and evidence gathered from mobile phone text messages, the 16-year-old girl had threatened to break up with the boy unless he killed Johansson Rojo, who had allegedly told several people that she was also in a relationship with the boy.

After asking Johansson Rojo to accompany him to a wooded area near the graduation party that they were attending, the 16-year-old boy proceeded to beat and strangle Johansson Rojo, leaving her for dead.

She was found early the next morning, seriously injured. She was then rushed to a hospital where she later died from her injuries.